In many life situations, it is advantageous to use containers that can be opened and shut by movement of the thumb of the very hand that holds the container. One can think of the situation where one hand is busy stirring a preparation and small amount of various other products may have to be added to that preparation such as in a kitchen or laboratory environment. In the old days, a warrior using a muzzle-loaded rifle would reach for a powder cartridge with one hand while holding the rifle with the other. He would then rip the top of the carton cartridge with his teeth before pouring its contents into the muzzle. A similar situation is encountered today when participants in paintball games must reload their weapon with a new supply of paintballs. Prior art paintball containers have an hinged top which still requires to be opened with two hands or use of the mouth.
This invention results from efforts to provide a more convenient form of paintball gun loading containers.